U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced tax credits for businesses that pay employees who take time off to get COVID-19 shots, a new effort to involve corporate America in his vaccination campaign and combat vaccine hesitancy by some in the public.
Lisa Bernhard produced this report.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced tax credits to certain businesses that provide paid time off for their employees to get COVID-19 shots as he seeks to combat vaccine hesitancy and get corporate America more involved in vaccination efforts.
“I’m calling on every employer, large and small, in every state, to give employees the time off they need, with pay, to get vaccinated.” Businesses with fewer than 500 employees can get a tax credit of up to $511 a day for giving workers as much as 80 hours of paid time off to get their shots or recover from any side effects.
The tax credits were authorized under Democratic-backed COVID-19 pandemic relief legislation and are available through September.
“When tomorrow’s vaccination numbers come out, it will show that today we did it.
Today, we hit 200 million shots….” The announcement came as Biden said he expects the U.S on Wednesday to reach his goal of getting 200 million coronavirus shots administered in his first 100 days in office.
But now the administration's chief problem is shifting from securing enough vaccines to convincing enough Americans to get them.
It’s an issue that was also addressed Wednesday by Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, who said her state was among those seeing a decline in vaccinations since last week’s announcement by the FDA and CDC that they were pausing the use of Johnson & Johnson’s shot due to a rare blood clotting disorder that emerged in six women.
“So this shift isn't again unique to Iowa.
Vaccine hesitancy is beginning to become a real factor across the country.” More than half of American adults have had at least one shot, according to the CDC, and a third are fully vaccinated.
BIDEN: “Now our objective is to reach everyone….” Biden touted how the vaccine effort entered a new phase this week with everyone over 16 now eligible.
“Wherever you live, whatever your circumstances, if you are 16 or older you are now eligible for a free COVID vaccine shot.” He implored Americans - who have the highest COVID death toll in the world - to get vaccinated by saying, very simply... "The vaccine can save your life.”
On April 21, President Biden announced the federal tax credit, hoping that business owners will encourage their employees to get..
